Deprecate in favor of `ts-node`

[blakeembrey]

Hi everyone!

I noticed this project a while back and tried to use it, but it had a number of issues. Since then, I've been built ts-node and we've recently consolidated some projects into @TypeStrong. I'm not sure how well maintained this project still is or if it has a roadmap, but I did notice a lot of issues going by without a lot of help. Is there anything I can do to help you consolidate features with ts-node?

For reference, ts-node is a similar project which uses the language servers to compile in-memory. It replicates much of node functionality using TypeScript as the compiler. There's also a (almost feature complete, minus an issue in nodejs/node) REPL that is useful for quick prototyping and demos with the type system.

Reference: https://github.com/TypeStrong/ts-node

[svallory]

Hi @blakeembrey, looks like we had the same idea. I started @tscontrib to group my typescript projects and invite others in. I was working in a big campaign until today, so I had no time to fix issues here (and elsewhere).

I'll take a look at ts-node this week. At first sight, I think it does so much more than typescript-require that it would still make sense for both to exist. But I'll check it again later this week.

I'm thinking maybe we should join orgs. What do you think?

[blakeembrey]

I don't see any original work in @tscontrib yet, so I'm not sure what could be merged. If there's projects that make sense to start centralising, we should be reaching out and moving the core into @TypeStrong to help maintain. Of course, this is only just starting to happen now 😄

As for typescript-require, at the core it's similar but using the language services to compile. On top of that, it just handles a REPL and node-like interface. To achieve the same effect you have here, you'd just need to do require('ts-node/register') or run the script with ts-node script.ts.

[svallory]

What I did in @tscontrib was fork the projects as a way to give credit to the creators. The idea was to invite them to the org so the maintaining effort would be spread among the projects. The org would, in this case, work more as a centralizer than a producer and maintainer of the projects. An org site would promote all the projects and, of course, we would help each other.

Btw, @theblacksmith is an org I created to hold all my open source projects. Have a look at tsmc. I didn't see anything like it around.

[blakeembrey]

I saw that, and it's great, but it doesn't make sense from a maintenance prospective to try and maintain forks. All installers would point and redirect to the original repos and issues would still be created there, so I'm not sure what the value would be other than to make a centralized list? Will you keep pulling from upstream? Will you do PRs back? I'm not trying to take a dig at you personally, just trying to understand and point out what I think is a flaw in trying to do it that way.

[svallory]

@blakeembrey don't worry, I'm not taking this personally :)

Honestly, I haven't thought it through. Since I didn't have time to setup the org properly, I'll I did was reserve the name and fork the projects there. In the case of TSDoc, which is not one of my own projects, I did a PR (which is still unanswered).

I didn't thought the process through, but your questions made me realize maybe that approach is not a good idea.

As for deprecating typescript-require, I like it's simplicity and the name. Also, I finally got some time to fix it. So I'll keep it around. But I'll link ts-node on the Readme as a more complete solution for anyone interested in one.

[blakeembrey]

There's been no commits on TSDoc in two years, I wouldn't get your hopes up now 😄

[ksikka]

It makes sense for both to exist. I'd like to be able to require typescript from coffeescript and I think typescript-require allows me to do that whereas ts-node does not. This is my primitive understanding so correct me if I'm wrong.

[blakeembrey]

@ksikka No, ts-node works like that. It just hooks into node require like this does, except it provides a CLI and REPL too. And the compilation mechanism using TypeScript is different.

[ksikka]

Got it thanks! I should've actually looked into it deeper before making accusations. Apologies for any confusion caused.

[radarsu]

I'm working on updated and improved version of this package https://github.com/radarsu/ts-import, already used that internally, now preparing it for publishment in next few days.